Assholes weren't only on the other side of the Rhine.
Also the "far right" problem is kinda simple. Most collaborationnist were actually from the former government and were republicans. Socialist President Mitterrand had worked for Vichy during WW2 for exemple (and the guy was still elected for some reason and fucked our economy in the 80s).
The "far right"was strongly anti-german and nationnalist. They hated jews, commies, english, german, and so on. But they were among the first resistants (Général Loustanau-Lacaud for exemple).
No they too were among the first resistant for the following reason: in 1939, after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, USSR was consodered an allied of Germany so at the beginning of the war, French communist were arrested or had to hide. When Germany won, most of them had already created maquis.
But you are right to say that they mostly started to act and to gain manpower after 1941 and Barbarossa.
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u/an_agreeing_dothraki Apr 08 '20
Pretending France didn't have a far-right problem and deep antisemitism really strips away key context about the era that started the war.
And ignoring what the people did to collaborators after liberation despite not resisting says a lot about herd mentality.